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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
"With those three factors in mind, our guys were able to secure the bodies that we needed to perform the work on a schedule that we had to be assured we could maintain and have the quality that was going to be expected," he said. "And we accomplished both."
Cummings said there were 36 days of weather events halting the project slightly or completely shutting things down for days at a time. They were still able to overcome the challenges and even beat their concrete schedule by three days.
"The perseverance of our guys, the never-say-die attitude, got that done," Cummings said.
He said the company immediately implemented a seven-day work week after the project was hit with 15 days of weather events. Some crews worked a double shift, while daily crews worked 10 to 12 hour days and a minimal crew was also brought in for 10-hour shifts to focus on clean up and repositioning materials so the next day production crews could come in and be productive from the immediate start of their day.
"My guys presented me with the idea that they had and I went, 'you know it sounds good, but I'm a guy from Missouri and that's the Show Me State, so go ahead and show me it's going to work,'" Cummings said. "It proved out. It was pretty amazing that just that strategy could make the difference that it did and it minimized the cost impact to the owner."
FITTING IT INTO PLACE
The location of the facility was also a challenge. Cummings said the building is "literally hemmed in," so crews only had one access road to the project. It's also adjacent to Southwest's current operations center with their main data center controlling all of the flight reservations, so if crews accidently knocked out the power it would've created a major issue.
"To put in $200 million worth of work with one in-and-out in just 18 months is a herculean task," said Dan Cummings, project executive with McCarthy Construction. "We overcame that by just closely coordinating deliveries, getting on-time deliveries and trucks couldn't just show up whenever they wanted."
John Orfield, principal with BOKA Powell, served as design lead on the project, said there was an interior aspect to the building so Southwest could give meaning to its spaces.
"The interior of their spaces relates to that corporate culture that we all see when getting on the plane," he said. "They're a light-hearted and sincere group of people and their interiors reflect that as well."
The facility houses 18 flight simulators, which Orfield said he fondly calls "the hall of machines." The building needed to be hardened, which meant eliminating windows,
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10 airportbusiness May 2018